Apollo exec to keynote Future Tire event

LONDON — Shibu George, head of automation and electronics at Apollo Tyres (Hungary) KFT, will give the keynote presentation at this year's Future Tire Conference, taking place in Cologne, Germany, June 27-28.

In his address, Mr. George will discuss the "era of innovation" in smart factory manufacturing, and the on-going transformation from traditional operations to advanced, automated processes.

Mr. George also will touch on customer demands, and the importance of adopting a "fully automated tire handling approach" in his keynote speech.

"The fact is, earlier automation was needed mainly for increasing the productivity and consistent quality," the Apollo official said in an interview with European Rubber Journal, a sister publication of Tire Business and organizer of the conference.

"But now there are more reasons and areas to go for automation, including the need to meet safety standards, ergonomics, data management, as well as push by the OEMs and market."

As far as the greenfield tire plant in Hungary is concerned, the company has employed automation in areas including storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) for raw material, finished goods and warehousing.

Additionally, auto-guided vehicles are used for transporting semi-finished goods, while green tires are transported to warehouse through an "untouched" automated process. Testing processes have also been automated at the new plant in Gyongyoshalasz.

According to Mr. George, increasing the level of automation in machinery is another important dimension to the Hungarian operation. The $500 million site, which will produce 5.5 million passenger tires a year in the first phase, opened early this month.

This, he said, means connecting all machinery to the plant IT network and collecting the information using RFID/barcode readers connected to the machinery.

Future Tire 2017 will focus on the adoption of integrated automation technologies in the tire industry and is supported by the European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers' Association (ETRMA) and Germany's tire trade association, the BRV. The program features more than 20 presentations and panel discussions related to the conference them.

Early bird registration ends April 28. To register click here.